High frame rate video cameras employ a multi-channel sensor array to minimize channel bandwidth and data rate. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,752, issued Mar. 30, 1982, inventor Bixby). One of the difficulties to be dealt with in using such a sensor is the requirement for the transfer characteristic, relating output signal amplitude to sensor illumination, to be closely matched across all channels. Under uniform sensor illumination, matching errors larger than approximately 1% can be readily detected by the human eye. If the transfer function is linear, uniformity can be achieved by adjusting individual channel gain and offset. This method is used in known multi-channel imager based on a 16 channel sensor. As the number of channels increase, however, this approach becomes tedious and highly prone to human error.
There is thus a problem, in high frame rate video cameras employing a multichannel area sensor array, of maintaining image uniformity across the image, without banding, that the following patents do not address.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued Inventor(s) ______________________________________ 4,525,741 6/25/85 Chahaf 4,578,711 3/26/86 White et al. 4,642,694 2/10/87 Yamagashi et al. 4,860,103 8/22/89 Azam et al. 5,053,771 10/1/91 McDemott 4,771,267 9/13/88 Russell 4,216,503 8/5/80 Wiggins 4,628,362 12/9/86 Waehner 4,625,240 11/25/86 Yablonski 3,800,078 3/26/74 Cochran 4,064,484 12/20/77 Mese et al. 4,128,830 12/5/78 Weythman 5,043,731 8/27/91 Nishimura 3,683,367 8/8/72 Monroe et al. 4,642,693 2/10/87 Fuse et al. 5,047,861 9/10/91 Houchin 3,824,588 7/16/74 Vermillion 4,593,268 6/3/86 Blauschild ______________________________________